Bolster Bulletin

November 2022

Our customers desire improved visibility over supply-side risks that contribute to inaccurate estimated time of arrival (ETA) forecasting for the moving parts within their operations. Poor forecasting translates to business risk relating to capital constraints and leads to degraded customer experiences and above-market costs.

In addition to the business risks above, Bolster has invested in increased demand for climate action accountability and adoption of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) measures we’ve baked into our platform. The type of visibility Bolster proves has become essential for businesses of all sizes to thrive in the present and future-proof themselves and their brands.

Concise context is critical when making potentially costly real-world choices in business as on the battlefield. Decision makers require unfettered access to the data, insights, and provenance at their disposal, alongside their agreed mission objectives (e.g. corporate ESG goals and policies), to justify positive change in business operations. 

This fusion and presentation of disparate datasets are at the heart of Bolster’s data platform, and our diverse and non-traditional backgrounds in risk management give us a fresh take on this problem. 

What Are Customers Care About

Import / Export

Viewing core operations through one pane of glass is immediately valuable. We’re making great strides toward improving visibility over complex transshipping patterns and learning from historic voyages for better future decisions.

Working Capital

Our ability to provide advanced ETAs helps our customers more accurately understand when they’ll get paid, and the integration of disparate data sources means knowing what consignments are on what vehicle (ship, truck, etc.) and how much capital is associated with each movement. What ports risk significant disruptions due to geopolitical events, and how would the knock-on effects impact cash flow?   We’re also talking with banks to help them understand lending reliant on business in geopolitically unstable areas.

E S G

We’re providing greater access to more options regarding sustainability factors, e.g. emissions, corporate vetting, modern slavery, human trafficking, corrupt practices, etc. Our customers seek improved visibility over emissions factors, living wage practices, and sustainable sourcing. We’re not looking to make rules or give an opaque ‘score’ or ‘rating’. We harness relevant data to enable better, more ethical decisions, and we’ll be launching our in-product shipping carbon calculator in late 2022.

Data for Good

We’ve introduced Bolster Labs into our core product to make metrics and data related to social justice, climate action, and corporate governance more discoverable to our customers. We want Bolster Labs to raise awareness of global issues and the efforts to tackle them, as well as educate business leaders on how ESG metrics translate when the rubber hits the road.  As we gather more signal on which data streams our customers find most compelling and actionable, Bolster Labs will provide a platform from which we can promote these streams into core product for all of our users.

Government

The war in Ukraine has highlighted the criticality of procuring the open source data heartbeat that allows for the baselining of events surrounding critical infrastructure (e.g. ports, depots) and becoming immediately aware of anomalies that may impact the mission. Our built-in integrations, data models, and commercial model mean that arming governments with the information they need to make better decisions has never been easier.

Bolster in the USA

We’re now incorporated in USA and looking forward to helping importers, exports, agriculture, manufacturing, transport & logistics, construction companies and more use Bolster to increase accountability for their supply chain and business operations. 

In the New Year

In 2023 we plan to rapidly grow and continue to close our pipeline so that our customers may better understand their businesses, such that they are willing to make different decisions and able to demonstrate the values and logic behind those decisions effectively.

If what we're doing resonates we'd love to discus your use case, take action below.

Share: